Just back from a three day trip to Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick to celebrate our anniversary. It is a great place to get away from it all, and that almost includes wine. Authorities are fairly liberal about what you can bring with you for personal consumption, but you have to feel it for the local inhabitants. The local population of 2500 are strung out along an eighteen mile road running north to south along the eastern shore. The western shore is rugged cliffs and mostly uninhabited.

There are six "licensed" restaurants on the island. Five are concentrated in the north, and the sixth is in the center. None in the south. Four of the northern places close for the winter. Two of the seasonal places have decent wine lists. Other than that, if you want any alcoholic beverages, you go to the single, provincial package store. This includes beer! It is centrally located, in the ugliest building on the island. Large and foreboding, it houses the driver's license bureau, and a couple of other agencies. The inside looks more like a wholesale than a retail operation. Prices for Canadian wine were reasonable, but imported wine was expensive. A three liter bottle of Carlo Rossi jug white was $22.00 Canadian. This is before the 18% VAT.

So, if you go, and we recommend it; bring your own vino with you. The point of all this story is that some places are even worse than the USA for lovers of the vine.